Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor J Hugo.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

None received.

Resolved: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 21 November 2022 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented a report on the Service's Annual Service Plan and Strategic Assessment of Risk for 2023/24.

Strategic Assessment of Risk

Risk in Lancashire would always remain dynamic: it changed over time, differed by area and demographic, and needed different interventions to reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring or to lessen its consequences. These risks were identified in the Strategic Assessment of Risk (SaoR) which was refreshed annually and was also informed by the Lancashire Resilience Forum Community Risk Register. Through its risk management framework, the Service continually assessed changing risk and prioritised its response framework. 

The Strategic Assessment of Risk reflected the knowledge and experience of a variety of specialist departments and utilised Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) Incident Recording System (IRS) data to derive a data driven methodology that highlighted the incident types that posed the greatest risk to the county of Lancashire and the individuals who lived and worked within it. 

This year’s document built on previous iterations as LFRS sought to continually improve its risk management processes.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer drew Members attention to the final paragraph of the introduction (page 43 of the agenda pack) particularly that “the environment in which we operate is constantly changing and new risks to our communities will always emerge”.  He advised that significant changes had been made to the ‘About Lancashire’ section, which had been refreshed to ensure the Service was using the most up-to-date data sources available and most notably the section now used 2021 census data.  The report also detailed risks relating to: Deprivation (and the correlation to fire risk); the wide range of Infrastructure risk within Lancashire in terms of operational response (including to: reservoirs, dams, wind turbines, ports and rail networks); the Built Environment (from the newer forms of construction materials and the ongoing work following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 supporting future buildings to be as safe as they could be); Technology (including electric vehicles and bulk/battery energy storage systems); and Wildfire Incidents (and the impact of climate change.  This in turn informed the Climate Change Operational Response Plan that detailed how LFRS would respond to increased flooding and wildfires).  Pages 53 – 55 of the agenda pack presented data analysis that fed into the risk methodology used and how the Service resourced to risk.  A heat map on page 56 of the agenda pack showed centres of high incident activity alongside fire station locations which reassured Members that resources were aligned to risk.  From page 58 onwards the report detailed the risk assessment methodology used and the risk associated against the 32 incident types which had resulted in some movement in the ranking of the highest risk incident types. 

In response to a question from County Councillor S Rigby concerning his county council division of St Annes, the Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the heat map showed high level activity across Lancashire and the Strategic Assessment of Risk drove robust Service,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/22

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report.  The Authority had a consultation strategy which provided a framework through which it could seek public opinion on major change issues.

Each year the Planning Committee reviewed the strategy, as now considered by Members, to assure continued compliance with guidance or legislation and to incorporate learning from any public consultation exercises undertaken.

The review concluded that the strategy continued to be legally compliant and in line with good practice. 

It was noted that in the most recent inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services the report commented that the service had improved in the way it communicated with the public and internal and external interested parties about its community risk management plan.  The strategy was also implemented to good effect during the public consultation on the emergency cover review proposals in summer 2022.

Resolved: That the Planning Committee noted and endorsed the consultation strategy.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the report updated on progress of the Blue Light Collaboration Board.  The current Membership was himself as Chair together with the Director of Response for North West Ambulance Service and the Deputy Chief Constable.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer updated Members on progress regarding the initial 5 collaboration projects as follows: -

1.    Missing Persons

Members of the Authority and Service sent their thoughts to family and friends of Nicola Bulley who was currently missing.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reassured Members that the Service had provided overhead and underwater search drones, search dogs, firefighters and boat teams to support the multi?agency response assisting Police colleagues in the search.

Following a review of mobilisation data, it was identified that the opportunities to provide Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) support to these incidents had reduced. Therefore, the main project objective was to improve the existing collaborative approach to the identification of the location of missing persons. Learning had been identified from the original process and improvements had been made. LFRS support for the ‘Missing from Home’ Manager training for Lancashire Constabulary staff would be continued in terms of LFRS assets available. Furthermore, Lancashire Constabulary had provided training to control staff to raise awareness.

The initial plan included a small number of LFRS personnel from the Urban Search and Rescue team and Drone team to undertake the ‘Missing from Home’ Manager course. This would develop knowledge and understanding regarding aspects of planning and undertaking a search. Additional LFRS crews had been identified as specialist teams and would receive a bespoke training programme which was currently being mapped out. These teams would develop an increased knowledge of managing missing person incidents within the context of potential crime scene management. All LFRS assets would remain available regardless of the additional skills imparted to the specialist teams.

2.    Estates and Co-location

This was a longer-term work stream with interdependencies as there were several internal projects within Lancashire Constabulary to review current building stock. This included Lancashire Constabulary headquarters, and various police stations.    Property leads from all three agencies were in contact with each other and plans were being developed to organise a monthly catch-up meeting. This would ensure that each Blue Light Service was sighted to internal findings and provided with awareness in terms of future opportunities.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that, should it be decided to relocate Preston Station or build in situ this would be done through the Collaboration Board to provide opportunities for collaboration.

3.    First Responder

A phased approached was agreed in terms of volunteers signing up to the scheme. Phase 1 was being rolled out to non-operational LFRS staff, such as Community Fire Safety. Subsequently, phase 2 would consider the roll out to operational staff.

Progress on phase 1 had resulted in the success of one non-operational member of LFRS responding to category 1 incidents.  The Deputy Chief Fire Officer advised that the LFRS First Responder volunteer had recently  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/22

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer updated Members regarding the inspection methodology and framework for His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and LFRS planning arrangements.

Round 2 gradings summary

Since the previous meeting, the Services in tranche 3 (of the current round of inspections) had received their reports.  A summary of the gradings awarded from the completion of round 2 inspections for each pillar was detailed in the report.  Whilst some more ‘outstanding’ grades were awarded in round 2, the greater detail and scrutiny in assessment meant that most fire and rescue services lost grading against the 11 diagnostics.  This was likely to continue to be the approach going forward, which meant that to maintain the same gradings in the next round of inspections it was expected that a demonstration of progress would be made.

Round 3 Overview

Members noted that the next round of inspections, known as ‘Round 3’ would start in February 2023.  HMICFRS would continue to inspect how effective and efficient Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) were at carrying out their principal functions of fire safety, firefighting, and responding to road traffic collisions and other emergencies.  All 44 FRSs in England would be inspected in round 3 over a two-year period, using a similar methodology to the Round 2 inspections. It was noted that HMICFRS had moved away from grouping services in to three tranches, to a more rolling approach. It was anticipated that this would ensure that publication of the reports was sooner after the inspection had concluded, which would enable FRSs to be able to react to feedback in a timelier way. Whilst it was still not certain, planning assumptions were that Lancashire would likely be inspected either late 2023 or early 2024.

HMICFRS had stated they wanted to maintain the focus of the sector on the areas that had been identified for improvement through the inspection process, therefore, moving forward they would continue to inspect the effectiveness and efficiency of FRSs and how well they looked after their people.  However, to identify more precisely where it was considered improvement was needed, and how FRSs should achieve it, HMICFRS would move to a common grading approach throughout both FRS and Police inspections.

The 5 judgement categories would be: i) Outstanding (the FRS had substantially exceeded the characteristics of good performance; ii) Good (the FRS had substantially demonstrated all the characteristics of good performance); iii) Adequate (the FRS had demonstrated some of the characteristics of good performance, but areas had been identified where the FRS should make improvements); iv) Requires improvement (the FRS had demonstrated few, if any, of the characteristics of good performance, and a substantial number of areas where the FRS needed to make improvements had been identified; v) Inadequate – HMICFRS had cause for concern and had made recommendations to the FRS to address them.

In the previous rounds of inspections, HMICFRS assessed and provided summary judgments for the three principal questions of the inspection methodology (efficiency, effectiveness, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/22

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer presented the report.

On 28 June 2021, the Fire Authority endorsed for public consultation (resolution 14-20/21 refers), a recommendation by the Performance Committee to remove attendance to Automatic Fire Alarms (AFA) at non-sleeping premises (unless presence of fire was confirmed) on the basis of a staged implementation over two years; during the day in year one and during the night from year two. 

The resulting consultation commenced on 12 August and concluded on 21 September 2021. It was noted that in accordance with committee terms of reference, the consultation outcomes and associated recommendations were considered by the Planning Committee at its meeting held 15 November 2021 where it was resolved (15-20/21 refers) to make recommendations to the Authority.  At its meeting on 13 December 2021 the Authority approved the recommendations (resolution 46-20/21 refers) with the launch of the new policy from 1 April 2022.

Prior to implementing the revised AFA policy (which aimed to reduce the volume of Unwanted Fire Signals) a significant amount of engagement was completed over a six-month period, with North West Fire Control (NWFC), Alarm Receiving Centres (ARC), members of the public, operational and fire protection staff, to ensure that the policy changes were understood by all concerned, and that they could adapt working practices and procedures to manage the change.

In addition to premises that contained sleeping risk, a number of other premises types were exempted from the policy due to the inherent risks posed and the consequences of a fire occurring, namely:

·         Single private domestic dwellings.

·         Sheltered accommodation.

·         Other residential premises such as hostels, hotels, student accommodation, care/nursing homes etc.

·         Registered Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) sites, and nuclear sites covered by the REPPIR legislation.

·         High rise buildings.

·         Hospitals.

·         Prison/Young Offenders’ institutions.

·         Police stations, military barracks.

·         Infant, primary, or secondary education premises.

·         Grade 1 or Grade 2* heritage premises.

The policy also permitted that non-sleeping premises, which would not normally receive an attendance during the above hours, be granted a fire alarm exemption, if they provided evidence that their premises had an Enhanced Reliability Alarm System^[1].  To date one property had requested a fire alarm exemption and provided the necessary documentation for this to be implemented.

Data Analysis (9-month review)

In April 2022 the revised AFA policy was introduced to non-sleeping premises types between the daytime period of 0800 to 1900. Since implementation, the Service had seen significant reductions (42.3% decrease on the previous 5?year average) in the overall number of AFA attendances to premises covered by the policy.  During the months of April 2022 to December 2022, 14.1% of the total initial AFA incidents occurred within daytime period which favourably compared against an average of 55.8% during the preceding 5 years.

Incidents at property types to which the new AFA policy applied, between the daytime period, had reduced 85.5% during the comparative first nine months of 2022/23, to the previous 5-year average.  The Assistant Chief Fire Officer commented that mobilisation to unwanted fire signal  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23/22

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer presented an overview of the report.  The three main drivers in the report were:  i) to ensure the Service was effectively deploying resources (using the most qualified and knowledgeable inspectors) to review the most complex premises in Lancashire; ii) to make sure that as the delivery of services changed, those changes were integrated into the risk based inspection programme as appropriate; and iii) the Service, teams and individual officer targets were largely driven by the risk based inspection programme therefore targets needed to be realistic and achievable to ensure that the Service could effectively deliver against the requirements of Lancashire’s risk based inspection programme.

The Assistant chief Fire Officer introduced Area Manager Matt Hamer who presented the report.

Nationally, the terminology ‘Risk Based Inspection Programme’ (RBIP) was predominantly applied to a list of commercial premises which had undergone some form of scoring, triage or consideration by the Fire Safety Enforcing Authority to deem it warranting an audit by a competent Fire Safety Inspector (FSI). There was no one piece of guidance that Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) could use as the ‘how to’ for RBIP and there was no national scoring mechanism however, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) had led on this for several years and continued to shape national thinking.

LFRS existing ‘risk based’ methodology applied to circa 65k+ premises which, when additional criterion was applied, set an inspection target of the top c.7.4k premises over a 3-year period; equating to c.2.5k audits per annum.  This list of 7.4k premises was then referred to as the RBIP.

Issues with inspection programmes being discussed nationally included how best to discharge resources towards i) ‘assumed risk’ (derived from data) versus ii) ‘live risk’ (known risks) i.e. Business Fire Safety Check (BFSC) outcomes, complaints, local knowledge, district planning etc.  The changes within this proposal were developed with this in mind to afford LFRS the capacity to remain agile to both elements of risk. It was also noted that nationally, the application of a purely assumed weighting or score applied to a premises to determine its level of risk, would result in the same premises being audited time and again. For LFRS this would result in the top c.7.4k premises being audited repeatedly.

The existing weighting/scoring methodology had been strength tested by Lancaster University and was aligned to national guidance and best practice^[1].

The methodology was applied in such a way that focus was driven towards:

·           Occupant's sleep - those unfamiliar with the premises and unable to escape without significant assistance and pre-planning (e.g. Hospitals, Nursing & Care Homes) 

·           Occupants sleep - those unfamiliar with the premises (e.g. Hotels and Hostels) 

·           Occupants sleep - those familiar with the premises (e.g. blocks of flats) 

·           Occupants were awake - but unfamiliar with the premises (e.g. theatres, pubs, clubs) 

To undertake this work, LFRS Protection department currently had 41 roles with differing levels of responsibility for auditing premises, ranging from:

·           ‘Developing’ Business Safety  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24/22

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report. 

In line with the Business Continuity Policy (BCP), Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) was required to test Business Continuity Plans annually. As such, the Service exercised and tested multiple tactical and strategic level BCPs in a Service-wide BCP exercise in November 2022.  Consequently, 14 recommendations were identified through a structured debrief and these were in the process of being implemented; namely embedding business continuity within LFRS was highlighted as a priority.

Numerous other BCP exercises were being planned to take place in 2023 to validate BCPs created for recent increased or new risks, as well as maintaining the annual November BCP exercise for 2023.

As a named Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. LFRS was required to maintain robust Business Continuity Plans (BCP).  In order to achieve this LFRS had taken steps to align with both the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines  and the Business Continuity ISO 22301 standard by updating the Business Continuity Management System supporting documents and suite of plans accordingly.  The overarching principles of both frameworks required LFRS to review, update and test plans at predetermined intervals based on a Business Impact Analysis for each identified critical activity or process. 

Resolved: That the Planning Committee:

i)       Accepted the arrangements for the Business Continuity Plan exercising 2023; and

ii)      Supported strengthening LFRS’ resilience through the development, embedding and implementation of a Business Continuity Management System.

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 17 July 2023 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:    scheduled for 20 November 2023

                                           proposed for 5 February 2024

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday,17 July 2023 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

A further meeting date was noted for 20 November 2023 and agreed for 5 February 2024.